Legal vulture Gloria Allred is trying to block Octomom Nadya Suleman’s predictable reality show route to fame and cash. Allred has filed a petition with the court asking that a guardian be appointed to look out for the rights of Suleman’s children. Press-hungry Allred has consistently talked smack about Suleman to the media, and worked as a go-between for Suleman and the Angels in Waiting nursing agency. Suleman ultimately decided not to work with Angels in Waiting, saying she felt observed and judged in her own home. It looks like she was right as Allred was all too willing to blab that they’d filed three reports with Child Protective Services against Suleman, all due to “safety issues” over the privacy and security of Suleman’s home. For her part, Suleman claimed Angels in Waiting had foster parents already chosen for all eight of her newborns, although she makes a lot of wild claims and has been caught in several lies so it’s not like her word is worth much.
Now that Allred no longer has access to Suleman she’s come up with a another way to use her name to get press. She claims that the mother of 14 will be exploiting her children with the planned reality show:
Octuplets mother Nadya Suleman has something more than multiple bottle feedings and diaper changes to deal with: Attorney Gloria Allred filed a petition in Orange County Superior Court Monday requesting that a guardian be appointed to protect the rights of Suleman’s eight infants now that their mom is reportedly moving forward with plans to film a reality show.
“Rather than choosing to provide her children with a normal life, their mother has chosen to commercially exploit them and it appears she plans to continue commercial exploitation of them in the future,” Allred said during a press conference held in law offices. “If she doesn’t protect their rights, the courts will do it for her.”
Allred filed the petition on behalf of her client, Paul Peterson, a former child actor turned activist for minors working in the entertainment industry. At Monday’s press conference, both she and Peterson insisted that an Orange County-based guardian – whom they’ve selected – is the best bet the octuplets have to ensure that the money they earn as participants in a future reality show isn’t spent or wasted by their mother.
“I’ve been concerned about this since the get-go,” said Peterson, a former Mouseketeer who starred on the popular Donna Reed Show in the 1950s and 1960s. Peterson claims he first contacted Allred about the matter after the media circus that erupted when the first two of Suleman’s octuplets returned home March 17.
Allred claims that Suleman violated a number of California labor laws by allowing her infants to be filmed on several occasions by the media late at night and without the presence of a studio teacher. She insists that a court-appointed guardian, paid on an hourly basis, will make sure that this sort of situation doesn’t happen again. A hearing on the matter is scheduled for June 22 in Orange County Superior Court.
“Nadya is doing the best she can,” says her attorney, Jeff Czech. “Nobody has those children’s best interest closer to her heart than she does.”
[From People]
A lot of commenters are pointing out that they have just about as much disdain for Allred as they do for Suleman so it’s hard to know which side to take. Suleman has to keep paying for the Hollywood lifestyle she clearly aspires to and a reality show would provide both the money and name recognition that go along with that. It’s not the best childhood for her kids, but several other large families have chosen that route and we haven’t heard about legal challenges to their rights to put their kids on television. They don’t live in California, though, where the labor laws are different and may keep Suleman from moving forward with this show. She continues to claim it’s a “documentary,” but she also said she never had plastic surgery and that she wasn’t on welfare despite using food stamps and disability for half of her six older kids. Suleman works the system and twists the truth to meet her own objectives, much like Allred.
Nadya Suleman is shown battling to get one of her kids in the car after a shopping trip on 4/14/09. Credit: Dome, Jones, PacificCoastNews.com
It is a good idea to have a trust established for the children – why should the money made from this so-called documentary be used for shopping splurges for Octomom? Its riduculous watching all the shopping trips, manicures, tatoos…, who paid the hospital bill? You and me, and the state of California. Who is paying any number of the other bills? You and me, and the state of California.
Let her have her reality show so you and me, and the state of California are off the hook. But don’t let her live as she did before with entitlement after entitlement because she wasn’t working. There are enough people out there who do need help from the government. Doesn’t it stop when your income reaches a certain level?
Sorry for my rant, but this woman makes me see red.
I’m not going to lie, if she had a reality show I’d watch it once or twice. It’s like the Kardashians – the train wreck is just so obvious, you don’t know how anyone could possibly take themselves that seriously. We’d be watching Octomom try to explain herself to the camera and how she’s really a great parent while in the background her kids are dangling over a stair case or playing with the stove, or punching each other in the face.
It’ll be great.
All I need to know about this woman I’m seeing in the header shot. Focus on your kid, not the camera! Ug, make her disappear.
totally, flourpot. she ought to be ashamed. stop posing for two damn seconds and get your kid in the car.
also, i dont know why we are blaming allred for doing something we all wish was being done: trying to get DFYS (child/youth services) over to her house, and trying to get an injunction on that reality TV show she has cooked up. we’ve all been calling for someone to do something. we shouldnt be irritated when someone actually does, but she is the ‘wrong person’ for the job. ends justify means. i dont care if it was heidi montag trying to stop her reality show. she must be stopped.
I know Flourpot! I noticed that too! She’s got a kid throwing a tantrum and she’s cheesing for the F****** camera!
I doubt if she is cheezing for the camera. She is just being very careful to behave as if she wouldn’t sock the kid if no one was looking. As for Allred, while she’s at it, why doesn’t she go after the serial welfare Mom’s that continue to have children because they will receive more money, or attack a certain culture from a certain country that will remain nameless that thinks it’s ok to have numerous children all with different fathers, who once the kid is out, bugger off for the next woman in line, while she waits her turn for the next guy. Octomom isn’t the only skank in town.
Flourpot, you are absolutely right! Stop smiling for the cameras…your kid is pitching a fit…what is there to smile about? Take care of your kids FIRST!
To me, as a mom, that look says “I’m trying to be happy despite my kid throwing a tantrum” I agree with Kait 100% I will watch b/c I love train wrecks…lol isn’t that why we all follow all things celeb and “reality”? I also know that sometimes not paying attention to your kid when they are throwing a tantrum helps!
bros: Spot on. I agree with everything you said.
And just for the record, there’s no way in HELL I would watch even a minute of this woman’s show. Her despicable, self-serving behavior disgusts me, and it’s obvious that a healthy portion of the money she’s “earned” thus far has gone towards her own personal vanity projects, not the children.
The worst thing Suleman did was hook up with this Allred bitch. Now she’s paying the price by having her infiltrate her life and file lawsuits against her.
I would NEVER watch any show with this woman on it.
I don’t know Allread from anyone else on the street, but I agree with the idea of setting up a trust fund for the kids–they’re sure as heck gonna need it the way this woman blows through money.
flourpot and victoria – that’s what I was thinking, too. I wish this woman and her family would just GO AWAY.
Did Alred do the same for the other reality shows like Denise Richards’ show
I don’t care for Gloria either but as a resident of CA I am happy someone is stepping in and trying to hold someone accountable for the money coming in. Wonder why the house is titled in her father’s name? So we taxpayers cannot put a lien on it to cover the millions of dollars worth of bills we are paying so she can have this famewhore lifestyle. I have been complaining that nobody is stepping into this mess and finally DCFS did a visit last week and Allred is making sure the children aren’t exploited. Perhaps if Nadya doesn’t see an immediate payday for herself she will go away. She doesn’t strike me as a woman that is capable of deferring her own self-interests and putting the long term welfare of her children first. The trips to the Mac counter, three hundred dollar shoes and blouses, manicures fry me.
Who am I more tired of and annoyed with ? Octomom, or this shrieking harpy of a lawyer, who makes Nancy Grace look like Mother Theresa?
Quite a mental puzzle.
As the youngest child of a hugh family, I can tell you that the children need a MOTHER! Not some deranged moron with Borderline Personality Disorder! The “ME FIRST, PICK ME, LOOK AT ME” is distrubing; I do feel the child should be removed from this animal. Surely the money and “SHOW” is all about her EGO. She had these children not to GIVE to them but instead to RECEIVE from them. I am so sad and scared for these children who don’t get the time, attention, and CARE they sorely need.
Those poor children has such a small chance of becoming happy, functioning adults – like Octo have her show and maybe there will be enough money left over to afford the children’s therapy bills.
As bad as Alred is maybe her LOUD presence in this will save the kids from abuse or neglect from their truly crazy mother!
i hope that kid kicked her in the hotpocket.
Its sad that there are still a few people saying..”Allred should go after welfare mothers that consistently have kids for money, or give her a break, she is trying, its hard for a pimp”
just joking w/the last one
I HOPE Allred can get someone to oversee the monies from all of these ventures, these kids will need money later on–she will run through that money because she is crazy, has no sense of responsibility..her poor parents have almost lost everything and what did she do to re-pay them?? keep implanting damn embryos and KEEP lying about it…
oh, for the poster up top..please believe Denise Richardson’s kids were not the stars of the show.
I will not watch Octopussy, she’ll get some donations too, I am sure.
Not a big fan of Gloria, but in this case — Team Allred. Paul Petersen has a long career as an advocate of child actors.
I wish Octopussy would tragically (and of course accidentally)into th La Brea Tar Pits…
I don’t see Celebitchy’s gripe with Allred. Seems to me, Allred is doing the right thing for the kids and Peterson is a well-respected child actor advocate. Suleman IS using her kids as actors in their own lives, or legions of extras in her life. There’s not even the excuse some stage parents use for their kids, “Oh, he/she just loves to perform.” They are trying to live and she is leeching off them for her own profit/psychosis. Why in the world shouldn’t they be protected? God knows Suleman is not looking out for their best interests, so someone should. Good for Allred for stepping up to the plate. On another note, regarding the picture, this is another example how Suleman can blithely filter out her kids to focus on herself. The relationship is between Suleman and the camera, not Suleman and the kid. Shameless.
I agree with Allred-and I hope she’s successful. I’d like to see the miserable, bloated, bloodsucking tick lose custody of her frankenlitter.
The thing is-many of these babes (if not all of them) are gonna have physical, mental and certainly emotional problems. What reality show is gonna want to cover that?
And my gawd-that one boy is VIOLENT! He’s gonna hurt someone. He alone is reason enough for the authorities to watch this sad circus play itself out.
This woman does not live in the real world. This was pre-determined by Dr. Phil and that should have been the catalyst to get her into therapy before taking the children from the hospital.
I still hope that it is not too late for her to get HELP.
Even when she was interviewed on TV by several commentators it was obvious she believed her incredible notions (she hardly let them talk and kept interupting them) I could not believe they didn’t shake her and say “Snap out of it”!
She has no common sense. And sad to say, they don’t teach that in school.